Authors / CoAuthors
Hackney, R.
Abstract
The Lord Howe Rise (LHR) region is one of the last remaining geoscientific frontiers on Earth. The LHR, part of northern Zealandia, comprises submerged and extended continental crust that separated from Australia in the Late Cretaceous. Present knowledge of the LHR is based on widely-distributed marine and satellite geophysical data, limited dredge samples and sparse shallow (<600 mbsf) ocean drilling that have provided a general picture of crustal structure, sedimentary basin architecture and resource potential. Accessing rock samples that more directly constrain the Cretaceous and older tectonic and climatic history of the southwest Pacific requires drilling into sediments and older basement rocks buried deep under ubiquitous Cenozoic pelagic ooze. Geoscience Australia and the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology are leading an international effort to drill a deep stratigraphic well into a LHR basin. A full proposal for drilling up to 3500 mbsf using the JAMSTEC riser drilling vessel Chikyu was submitted to the International Ocean Discovery Program in October 2015 (IODP 871). The objectives of the deep drilling are to: define the role and importance of continental crustal ribbons like the LHR in plate tectonic cycles and continental evolution; recover new high-latitude data in the southwest Pacific to better constrain Cretaceous paleoclimate and linked changes in ocean biogeochemistry; and test fundamental evolutionary concepts of sub-seafloor microbial life over a 100-million-year timeframe. These objectives are complementary to the goals of the New Zealand-led IODP proposal 832 focussed on Paleogene subduction initiation and climate in the southwest Pacific. Together these IODP proposals will contribute to a unified understanding of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic tectonic and climatic history of northern Zealandia.
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nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
87798
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
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2601
Australia
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- External PublicationAbstract
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
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2015-01-01T00:00:00
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